Between 2020 and 2025 the Powell-Cotton Museum committed itself to four reinterpretation projects each looking at different elements of the collection and each taking a different approach, this period was named the ‘Reimagining’. All but one of these projects was externally funded. When these projects all culminated in February 2025 it was important for us to reflect on these processes, learn from them and then move forward, still proactively making real change within the galleries and throughout the museum’s activity. How did the ‘reimagining’ become a reality?

 

In a time when museums continue to face challenges from every aspect of our work (collections care, visitor experience, financial constraints etc) it is important to us that we keep reinterpretation work at the core of what we do to ensure we maintain our ethical obligation to those whom the collections represent.

 

Now as we move into this second phase this session will reflect on the work done during phase one and then outline the steps we have taken to ensure our work, outputs and important community curation continue beyond the life of externally funded projects and the challenges and successes we face in this process.